476: Kat Cole - Pragmatic Optimism, Reflection Questions, Humble Confidence, Building Trust, & The Hot Shot Rule

Text Hawk to 66866 to become part of "Mindful Monday," and join tens of thousands of Learning Leaders who receive a carefully curated email from me each Monday morning to help you start your week of right... Full show notes at www. LearningLeader.com Twitter/IG: @RyanHawk12 https://twitter.com/RyanHawk12 Kat Cole is the President, COO, and board member at Athletic Greens. She was previously President and COO at Focus Brands, the parent company of Cinnabon, Auntie Anne’s, Moe’s, Schlotzsky’s, McAllister’s, Carvel, Seattle’s Best Coffee International, and Jamba. She oversaw all businesses, their 6,000 operations globally, and the multi-brand licensing and CPG business with 90,000+ points of retail distribution. She has more than 20 years of operational, brand, and executive leadership experience and has an MBA from Georgia State University and an honorary Doctorate from Johnson and Wales University. This episode was recorded at the Insight Global Headquarters in Atlanta, GA as part of the Women's Leadership Council "Raise Your Hand, Raise Your Voice" event. Notes: A pragmatic optimist: When Kat was 9 years old, Kat's mom decided to leave her dad. Her dad was an alcoholic. Kat has two younger sisters. Kat was in multiple car accidents with her dad while he was driving drunk. At the age of 9, Kat looked at her mom and said, "What took you so long?" She learned that "the people who are closest to the action know what to do long before the senior leaders do. But they lack the language to articulate the problem and the solution. And they lack the authority to do something about it.""I learned to stay incredibly close to the people who are close to the action from that moment.""With all that he did, my mother never spoke ill of my father. I remember in all of those years, we were super poor. Taking meat scraps from the butcher. I remember one holiday season we were driving around looking at holiday lights. We went through the fancy neighborhoods and she said, 'isn't that beautiful, they must work so hard.' There are these things I absorbed that I started expecting from leaders. I learned to be grounded in the practical (the pragmatic part), but still optimistic because a whole lot is possible with very little, especially if the leader stays close to the action." "I am a learning leader. Learning is my currency." Oh! I get to do something new and I can help people, and I can make money doing it. And money is freedom because it's independence." "When we left my dad, my mom only had one goal, all she wanted was to raise three independent girls. Our willingness to be independent was her north star."Kat got a job at Hooters and quickly set the record for "close-opens." The shifts where you close the restaurant and open it the next day. She did it 22 straight days.She was then asked to travel to Sydney, Australia and open a new restaurant. She had never left the country and didn't have a passport. She said yes anyway. She went on to open restaurants on four continents before she was twenty. How to build trust: It's important to lead through action, not just words. Something as simple as when we get together in person, take time to buy the donuts and coffee or some AG1. Just that effort to find a way to do something that shows you care about their experience. I don't need to say 'I thought of you.' It is obvious." "In my role, my success is your success. Your success comes from me removing friction for you." Vulnerability - Lead with vulnerability first. Share your story. Holding people accountable - A players do not like seeing B players, C players, people who don't give their best being given equal opportunity. Someone needs to be in control, expectations are communiated and managed, and the leader is keeping us on the tracks. You have to hold people accountable. Conflict resolution - On Friday night a regular patron would go to Hooters with his friends and order 50 wings... "After finishing the wings, he would call me over and say, 'there was only 40 wings.' He did this 4 weeks in a row. "The 4th Friday, he comes, orders 50 wings, and while they were finishing, before he finished, and I on my own waitress discount ordered 10 wings, and brought them to him. And winked. And his buddies busted out in laugher, and he said, 'good one' and tipped me 100 bucks." "Don't confuse my kindness for weakness or stupidity. I'm generous. I'm thoughtful. I'm caring. I assume positive intent first, but I'm not going to be taken advantage of." "Confidence is not an old school overly masculine swagger, I know what I'm doing, I've got this. It's a humble confidence. It's not I know what I'm doing, it's I know I can figure this out. My confidence is deeply humble. I have screwed up so many times. I spent 10 years doing humanitarian work on the border of Ethiopia. I know what bad actually looks like. Which keeps western world business bad equally in perspective. That helps me chill. And that translates as ...